Evidence of meeting #2 for Status of Women in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was terms.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Nancy Gardiner  Assistant Deputy Minister, Department for Women and Gender Equality
Lisa Smylie  Director General, Communications and Public Affairs Branch, Research, Results and Delivery Branch, Department for Women and Gender Equality
Kim Gauvin  Director, Women's Program and Regional Operations Directorate, Department for Women and Gender Equality
Danielle Bélanger  Director General, Gender Based Violence Policy, Department for Women and Gender Equality

11:25 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio

We're now going to switch it over.

Andréanne, you have your six minutes.

11:25 a.m.

Bloc

Andréanne Larouche Bloc Shefford, QC

Thank you.

It's really something to see how new the department is. It wasn't created until 2015, so it's only four years old and is now entering its second mandate.

Ms. Smylie, what work undertaken in the last session of Parliament do you think the committee should build on? Is there anything we absolutely cannot overlook or any issues that the new minister is continuing to focus on, issues that should definitely continue to be studied?

11:25 a.m.

Director General, Communications and Public Affairs Branch, Research, Results and Delivery Branch, Department for Women and Gender Equality

Lisa Smylie

One area that I would point to is the gender pay gap. We did a lot of work during the last mandate on understanding the gender pay gap. What we need to do now is to address the factors associated with the gender pay gap. They are things like the care work and family leave and things like encouraging girls and women to enter STEM fields and boys and men to enter traditionally women-dominated fields like health and business. It's doing work again to shift that culture. It's public awareness. It's education at a really early age to shift cultural attitudes so that, as I said, we can have more men doing care work and we not perceive science and engineering to be men's fields.

11:30 a.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Department for Women and Gender Equality

Nancy Gardiner

I'll add to that.

In addition to the work that Lisa talked about, the department is also looking at a gender-based violence national action plan, and looking at what that means across the country, not only within the federal government but also in working with provinces and territories.

Also, we talked earlier about the gender results framework. We need to put a strategy around that, a gender equality action plan that really puts a strategy around that framework to ensure that we're going to be meeting some of the areas that Lisa talked about, some of those pieces of work that we want to frame and put together as a building block for the overall plan for the department.

11:30 a.m.

Bloc

Andréanne Larouche Bloc Shefford, QC

To help guide your work, I would reiterate the fact that only 0.5% of the total amount of aid earmarked for OECD gender-specific programming went to women's rights organizations in 2014. Here, we talk about numbers. In terms of budgeting, what's your relationship with the finance department like?

Do you think it's important to have a good relationship with the finance department and to ask for more money to advance certain issues and carry out all the studies you hope to?

Do you need a larger budget?

11:30 a.m.

Director General, Communications and Public Affairs Branch, Research, Results and Delivery Branch, Department for Women and Gender Equality

Lisa Smylie

In terms of the global budget, I think that's a question that would be better answered by Global Affairs Canada. It certainly isn't my area of expertise since it's global. I am focused more on domestic, so I think it's a better question for Global Affairs officials.

11:30 a.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Department for Women and Gender Equality

Nancy Gardiner

I would agree. We capture as part of the gender results framework an international component, but the piece specifically related to that would be with our Global Affairs colleagues.

11:30 a.m.

Bloc

Andréanne Larouche Bloc Shefford, QC

What about your department's relationship with the finance department? You have issues to address, studies to carry out and projects to complete. None of those things can be realized without the finance department's approval. Do you have anything to add? If not, I have another question for you.

You said you keep an eye on what other countries are doing. Are there any particular models you're drawn to more than others? Is there anything you're looking into that would help you bring in new policies in Canada? It could be policies on domestic violence or gender equality, or perhaps measures to support indigenous women. Can you tell us about any such measures taken by other countries?

11:30 a.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Department for Women and Gender Equality

Nancy Gardiner

We work directly with the Department of Finance, as you pointed out, in terms of the gender budgeting piece. We work very closely with them to ensure that for all proposals going to the Department of Finance, a gender-based analysis is done. In terms of the programming within our department, we prioritize the programming based on the needs and the priorities that we're working on at the federal government level. We do work with Global Affairs very closely. Our focus is domestic of course, but we have looked at many best practices across the world. Maybe I'll ask Danielle to talk specifically about the work we're looking at in terms of gender-based violence in Australia.

11:30 a.m.

Director General, Gender Based Violence Policy, Department for Women and Gender Equality

Danielle Bélanger

Thank you for your question.

In order to build a gender-based violence national action plan, we are certainly looking at models in other countries, including Australia and New Zealand. We are also looking to countries in Europe such as Sweden and Iceland, and we've even met with officials from other OECD countries. A lot of models are out there.

Here, in Canada, we have to keep jurisdiction in mind, so it's more complicated. Of course, we are looking at the various models through that lens. The provinces and territories have adopted many models that are proving successful, so when it comes to establishing a national action plan, it's definitely important to incorporate the perspectives of the provinces and territories.

11:30 a.m.

Bloc

Andréanne Larouche Bloc Shefford, QC

I'm already out of time?

11:30 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio

Andréanne, it goes very quickly, I agree.

Now we're going to Lindsay Mathyssen, for six minutes.

11:30 a.m.

NDP

Lindsay Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON

Thank you very much for coming.

It's very interesting to get into a lot of these issues that we'll hopefully be delving into in the committee going forward.

You were talking about the wage gap and a lot of things that you're encouraging. In terms of direct action for pay equity, a pay equity bill, we know certainly that the provision of a national child care program would actively help in terms of that legislative side. Are there movements on that? Are you working on that? Do you provide stats on that?

11:35 a.m.

Director General, Communications and Public Affairs Branch, Research, Results and Delivery Branch, Department for Women and Gender Equality

Lisa Smylie

This would be the purview of ESDC, so they'd be in a better position to talk about the progress on those initiatives. What I can say is that we worked very closely with ESDC in the early stages of this, providing technical expertise and our research. We continue to do so as they progress on these initiatives. We continue to work closely in terms of monitoring the gender pay gap and, again, providing that technical advice.

11:35 a.m.

NDP

Lindsay Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON

I had an interesting meeting with a woman who had recently been up in the north in Ontario. She was working with an indigenous community. Her specialty is sex trafficking and human trafficking. She talked about the community in which she was working. They experience a rate of 80% to100% of sexual violence. That just destroyed me. I couldn't even imagine what that would mean in terms of growing up with that being normal and what you saw and experienced every day. We asked where you go with that. How do you start to break that entire cycle?

She mentioned sex education as being a key part of that. She talked about what it meant for young people to be able to figure out their own autonomy and so on. Do you have program funding for that? Is that something you're focusing on? Is that somewhere the federal government needs to grow and go? I know that a lot of it is covered provincially, so it becomes a bit complicated, but could you talk about that as it fits into your gender-based violence framework?

11:35 a.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Department for Women and Gender Equality

Nancy Gardiner

That's an excellent question.

As you point out, it's a very difficult area to work in, especially for folks on the ground and people who live that experience. Danielle's team is focused on the gender-based violence strategy that we have right now at the federal level. The aspects around prevention and awareness and what they mean in that strategy is something that we still see now as areas where we can build more and increase our work and our programming.

As we mentioned earlier, the idea of building a national action plan around gender-based violence.... Those two pieces around awareness and prevention are areas that are still coming up as really critical pieces that we need to build on at a very early age, like you pointed out, with young women and young men. What are the programming pieces that we can put in place that will address that?

Maybe Danielle would like to add something.

11:35 a.m.

NDP

Lindsay Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON

I would say there are certainly specific needs for indigenous communities. How they navigate that, how they think about their own bodies and their own sexuality are all very unique and specific. Is that taken into consideration as well?

February 25th, 2020 / 11:35 a.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Department for Women and Gender Equality

Nancy Gardiner

On that point, we are working very closely with the indigenous colleagues and organizations that we work with to ensure that whatever strategy we put in place aligns with some of the really specific needs that folks have identified in communities.

We're working closely as well with our colleagues at CIRNAC and ISC and MMIWG as well, because there are some similarities around the gender-based violence piece. We really want to make sure that those two strategies are very aligned.

11:35 a.m.

Director General, Communications and Public Affairs Branch, Research, Results and Delivery Branch, Department for Women and Gender Equality

Lisa Smylie

Just to add to that, going back to the sexual health education, within the federal government the Public Health Agency of Canada leads on this piece. We recently provided technical advice and guidance on the Canadian guidelines for sexual health education that have now been released. Those guidelines very intentionally included skills for healthy relationships in order to prevent gender-based violence. I know the Public Health Agency of Canada also has programming to address this, including programming among indigenous organizations and in the north.

11:40 a.m.

NDP

Lindsay Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON

That's led, too, by organizations like NWAC or ONWA?

11:40 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio

You have 30 seconds.

11:40 a.m.

NDP

Lindsay Mathyssen NDP London—Fanshawe, ON

She wanted to finish. Go ahead.

11:40 a.m.

Director, Women's Program and Regional Operations Directorate, Department for Women and Gender Equality

Kim Gauvin

I wanted to add that, in terms of the programming we do, we also tackle it from different angles. You spoke to the education aspect. In terms of the men and boys, there are funding projects that support indigenous youth to understand various issues related to the ongoing struggles. There's also different funding for gender-based violence to support survivors up in the north. There are different techniques that look at cultural practices that are appropriate for the different communities.

11:40 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio

Excellent. Thank you very much.

We're now going to the second round. We're going to start with Jag Sahota.

Jag, you have five minutes.

11:40 a.m.

Conservative

Jag Sahota Conservative Calgary Skyview, AB

Thank you, ladies, for appearing here today and for your presentation.

I have a question in regard to the six pillars that you spoke about. How did you decide those were the six pillars? Were there any other ideas or other pillars that were left out for any reason?